Abrosoft FantaMorph SE

You can get started quickly by using the New Project Wizard, which lets you create simple movies. To use this powerful program to its full potential, however, it's a good idea to take the nine-lesson tutorial available via the Help system.

Your handiwork can be exported in one of several movie and still formats, including .avi, animated GIF, JPEG, and so on. The options are too numerous to go into here; visit Abrosoft's site for a complete listing. The features list also provides an exhaustive comparison of the three FantaMorph versions available: SE ($30), Pro ($50), and Deluxe ($100).

This trial version is free for 30 days and it gives you access to all of the features available in FantaMorph's three versions. Note: Although the program can use OpenGL hardware acceleration, it worked fine on my old IBM ThinkPad notebook.

Although FantaMorph is easy enough for computer-savvy laypeople to use, its powerful feature set could make it a good choice for Web designers and other professionals as well.

--Kim Saccio-Kent